I came back home the other day to find that I had missed a call on my phone and there was a message on my answering machine. It went along the lines of:
“Hi, this is mincer from Red Cross. Just checking up on how you are preparing for the Great North Swim and how the fundraising is going?”
Ah. I had redeemed a token on the website but never received confirmation or any emails/post of any kind so I had kind of assumed I didn’t get in. As a consequence not a single jot of training has been undertaken nor has any fundraising been done. This however needs to change and my fitness was the first of my concerns. I’ve always been a strong swimmer but obviously you don’t just turn up and whack out 1 mile on open water so this morning I set the alarm early and dragged myself out of bed. The cycle along to Wallsend baths was suitable enough to get the blood flowing before putting in a mile swim and then cycling to work in Cramlngton.
The swimming was laboured for the first 20-25 lengths before I settled into a rythm and the arms became synchronised with the breathing. If I can get a few more stints in then I should have a fighting chance when the event comes around in two weeks.
Assuming the info pack arrives in time I then have to think about how to get there and then how to get to the event itself as it is a few miles down the road from Ambleside. I’m thinking about parking on the far side of Ambleside and then cycling along to the event as I read somewhere there is some bike storage. That should leave enough juice in the tank to do the swim and then get back to the car. I wonder if all the campsites are full in the area? Probably a silly question but I can have a look.
The countdown begins.
